Strategy Informer has posted a Q&A with Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, CEO of Serious Games Interactive, about Global Conflicts: Palestine. In the game players assume the role of a freelance journalist who has just arrived in Jerusalem looking to write and publish an article about the conflict. The player fleshes out the news story with dialog quotes gathered as the game progresses.

Strategy Informer: What made you decide to build this kind of game?

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen: It was really quite a mix. We wanted to make a serious games that appealed to both non-gamers, gamers and educators ­ something that had an agenda beyond entertainment and could show that games can do more that the mainstream game industry suggests. We thought global conflicts would work really well, and looking at the conflicts around the globe, one really stood out. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to go on and on, attracting a lot of people's attention. Many is interested but only get to the quick fixes from newspapers and television. We thought that through the game we could reach people in a different and engaging way that would give people a better understanding of the conflict while not being bored or overwhelmed by the complexity. Also, we really felt that the conflict had a lot of interesting and suitable conflicts that could work in the game environment and setup that we envisioned early on.

Strategy Informer: The news of Global Conflicts: Palestine game was recently published by global news networks such as CNN and BBC. How did the game development team received news of such extraordinary coverage?

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen: Well, obviously we were very excited because this is exactly what we want to acheive - to broaden the perception of games and reach out to new groups of people. With such strong mainstream press it should really be possible, and it shows that games are no longer a mere niche.